


Miscommunication

by Ashleystar523



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Miscommunication, one-sided reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 03:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9053125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashleystar523/pseuds/Ashleystar523
Summary: An angst to fluff, Marichat one-sided reveal fanfiction, in which miscommunication is the biggest enemy.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [343EnderSpark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/343EnderSpark/gifts).



> Special thanks to krzed for being my beta!

Under the veil of night, Chat Noir dashed on the rooftops of houses, down the empty neighborhood streets and through narrow alleyways; he was on a mission. Not a typical Chat Noir mission, as there was no akuma in sight, however; there was someone as beautiful and delicate as a butterfly that made him so eager to get to where he was going. 

His golden hair and shining bell blended in with the dim glow of streetlights, his black suit matching that of the midnight sky, the dull hum of the never quite quiet city hid his panting and breathy laughter from his excitement. His smile, toothy and large, shone like the moon. With a small thump, Chat landed on Marinette’s balcony. 

This had become a semi-regular occurrence over the past year, but Chat insisted it had only been under the pretense that he wanted to make sure no akumas came after her after the Evillistrator. It was a blatant and obvious lie since it had been over 3 months after the incident but Marinette wasn’t one to complain.

While Marinette had likely anticipated Chat’s visit, that wasn't the reason she had climbed through the trapdoor onto her balcony.

“Hey kitty,” she said will a dull and tired voice. “What brings you here?” 

Chat was immediately concerned. Not only were he and Marinette close friends, but also over his interactions both in and out of costume, he had begun to fall for his dorky classmate.

”Hey Princess, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” A thousand thoughts of what could have made such a cheery girl upset crossed his mind and he was prepared to do nearly anything to make her feel better. 

”Just drama at school, I'm sure you know how it is.” Was her reply. Chat did know some about how school could be filled with drama and frustrations but he had considerably less experience than most kids his age. 

”Do you want to talk about it?”

”I’d prefer not to.”

”Marinette-” He started to say.

”I know what you're about to say Chat, that you won’t judge me and you’ll be here to talk whenever I need. I know you’re that kind, but I’d really prefer not to talk about it.” Marinette’s voice didn’t hold any malice, only exhaustion. 

So there, at 12:27 am, Chat and Marinette sat in silence. Chat: slightly afraid that an akuma might get to her and not knowing what to do and how to help. And Marinette: not needing help, only someone to be there for her, smiled. 

That smile got larger and larger before she began to laugh. Her laughter began as small giggles but ended up being large booming laughs that echoed through her small balcony and across Paris. 

Chat was startled, this was a drastic change from her upset demeanor, “Uh, Princess?” Marinette turned to look at him, her laughter back down to giggles. Chat spoke again “Are okay?”

Marinette began to laugh again, before finally calming herself down enough to answer “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” She said between giggles, she composed herself and then continued,”It’s just that, well, I came out here to be upset but now that you're here, I just can’t.” 

Chat smiled, “Well I’m glad I could have been of some assistance, my lady.” Marinette’s smile instantly dropped. 

“M-my lady?” She questioned, her heart resting in her feet. Her mind was reeling, she didn't even hear Chat’s excuse. Had he figured her out? Is that why he wanted to hang out with her civilian form? She had finally started to open up to him and think he was, possibly- well- like- maybe… She didn't even know how to say it in her head. But had he been manipulating her? She settled on a definite no. How could she even think that? Chat was her partner and friend- and maybe one day, more- and he would never do anything will malicious intent. By the time Marinette pulled herself out of her own thoughts, Chat was nowhere to be seen.

Leaping across the rooftops in a blind panic, Chat was mentally scolding himself. Sure it was just a simple slip of the tongue but why? Why had his brain momentarily confused Marinette and Ladybug? Had his brain confused them because he was in love with them both? Were they that similar that he couldn't differentiate them? This wasn't fair to either of them but here he was, confusing them for each other.

However, as Chat neared his house, his mind asked him once more: why? Why had Marinette been so panicked? 

~

The next morning was a Saturday, much to the relief of the two young superheroes. Neither of them had gotten hardly any sleep. 

Marinette wondered why Chat ran, Chat wondered why Marinette froze, and the teenagers’ kwamis wondered how they could be so dense.

Below Marinette’s room, and in the bakery, a shy young girl by the name of Sarah clutched her phone desperately trying to operate google translate to order some pastries. She was in Paris for the first time, a 21st birthday gift from her friend who was fluent in French. However, she had been ditched for a random guy that had shown an interest in her friend. 

Sarah looked at the pastries one by one, unsure of the names of hardly any of them. She knew the obvious ones: croissant, eclair, macaron; but the others, she was at a loss for. Just as she was about to give up and forget about wanting to try some real French pastries, a boy that looked to be in his late teens and seemed to be holding a bag with school supplies tapped on her shoulder. 

He spoke in clear English but still with an accent “Excuse me, I noticed you had a translator on your phone but you seem to be at a loss. What would you like to order? I might be able to help.”

Sarah was relieved and smiled at the boy, “Thank you so much! How would I order that one there?” She asked, pointing at a flaky heart shaped cookie thing (palmier). She has seen them many times at stores in her hometown in the US, but she wanted to try authentic, freshly baked pastries. 

”Ah, a wonderful choice,” the boy started “You would say this” he grabbed a pen and notebook out of his bag, ripped a small slip of paper and wrote down a phrase with the pronunciation under it. Sarah said it under her breath and repeated it in her head a few times before turning back to the boy.

”Thank you so much, I really appreciate your help.” Sarah said with a genuine smile.  
”No, thank you.” Was his reply. Before she could question what he meant, a short woman who appeared to be of Asian descent took the place of a large burlish man who had previously stood at the counter helping other customers, she looked directly at Sarah and said something that she could only assume was a greeting.

Feeling more confident in ordering, Sarah walked up to the counter, repeating the phrase again and again in her head before saying the phrase fairly loudly.

The woman behind the counter became a bit red, and the boy behind Sarah was howling in laughter. 

Sarah froze, she had absolutely no idea what she said but she knew it wasn't good. She promptly turned on her heel, pushed by the boy who was still whooping in laughter, and ran out of the bakery. Tears threatened to run down her face. She was humiliated. She turned a corner, not even sure where she was. Her emotions were swirling and tears finally fell as she found herself between two random buildings, where a black and purple butterfly landed on her phone.

As quick as her crying started, it was driven to a halt. A voice spoke to her, at first in French but quickly switched to English once it realized she was uncomprehending.

”Poor girl, abandoned by your only friend for some one night stand, tricked into humiliating yourself, I bet you want to get some revenge. I am Hawkmoth and I will lend you my power, all you need to do is to get Chat Noir and Ladybug’s miraculous’!”

”Yes, Hawkmoth.” And with that, Sarah transformed.

~

“I am Ms. Communication, now all of you will know what it’s like to not say what you mean!”

Ladybug laughed at bit at that, seeing as she had quite a bit of experience being Marinette, however soon realized that this akuma was no laughing matter. Ladybug and Chat Noir both silently agreed that this was the toughest akuma yet; She literally attacked with words, anything that was spoken would materialize and be used against them, and it wasn't even fair to begin with. 

They couldn't communicate verbally, the wrong words always came out and they were always bitter, hateful, and rude comments. At one point Ladybug tried to tell Chat to look behind him but what she actually said was “Get hit by a bus!” Which he did once one materialized. It was unfair, it was like a malicious Evillistrator. Anything could be created, but this time Ms. Communication was ready to hurt others.

Throughout the fight, hateful words were exchanged when either hero momentarily forgot about the effects of the akuma, whenever one member of the duo tried to warn the other of an oncoming attack caused from the panicked manipulated cries from the crowd. Unwitting insults and death wishes suffocated the heroes, causing them to take both physical and emotional damage despite their constant inner reminder that they can't control what they're saying.

Ladybug tried to use Lucky Charm but it only caused another onslaught of attacks, Chat had tried using Cataclysm early on but only to find similar results. The two teens were tired and just wanted it to be over, any maybe it was that desperation mixed with sleep deprivation that gave Ladybug an idea of what to do next.

”Chat! You're nothing more than a sidekick!” Chat turned towards Ladybug, trying to decipher what she had actually tried to tell him but only saw her running towards him. She pushed him back and jumped onto a large shoe that had materialized with the intent of kicking Chat’s side. 

As Ladybug leapt towards the akuma victim, Chat stood there confused. Had his lady figured out a pattern in how the words were manipulated? No, she had said fewer words than he, and Chat had looked for patterns and there were none.

Ladybug, dove onto Ms. Communication, reaching toward the phone in her hand and successfully snatched it. She threw it back towards Chat, but it landed at his feet. The screen shattered and the akuma flew up where Ladybug caught it and purified it, but Chat still stood there.

His lady had said that. It wasn’t an effect of the akuma, she said that he was nothing more than a sidekick. The rational part of him told him that it was only to get around the akuma and to predict the attack so she could beat it, but the emotional part wasn't having any part of it and as Ladybug had her arm outstretched for a congratulatory fist bump for a job well done, Chat took off in the opposite direction.

~

That night Chat found himself sitting on the chair on Marinette’s balcony, looking out at the stars the mingled next to the lights of buildings. He glanced over at the trap door as he heard it being pushed open.

“Oh, Chat! You’re here! Are you okay? I saw what happened on the Ladyblog. What happened?”

“I’m fine. Ladybug just called me a sidekick to beat the akuma, that’s all.” He was still looking forward at the sky, his voice was even and didn’t show any signs of aggression which almost worried Marinette more than if there had been.

Guilt overcoming her, Marinette blurted out, “Chat, it’s okay to be upset! That must have hurt you and I’m sure that Ladybug didn’t mean it that way.”

Chat laughed in slight amusement with how intensively genuine she was being, “But that’s the thing, Mari... I’m not as upset as I should be. This girl who I thought I was in love with just called me ‘nothing more than a sidekick’ and I don’t know if it’s just my brain rationalizing it or what, but I’m not that upset.” Chat paused before adding quickly, “Don’t get me wrong! I am upset, but more of an ‘I idolize you and thought I was in love with you ever since I met you and I still think I am but just not as much’ kinda way, you know?”

Before Marinette could even process all of what he had said, let alone answer, Chat continued, “Oh god, I probably sound like I’m crazy, but... I just can't figure out how I feel. I was so sure, no matter who was behind the mask, that she was going to be the one I was in love with, that she was the one I’d spend my eternity with... But then I fell in love with you.” Chat’s voice sounded weak, hesitant, and full of muddled emotion by the end of his speech, but Marinette didn’t care. His last words echoed in her mind as she settled on a response. 

“Chat.” He turned to look at her. She muttered something under her breath and before Chat could even ask what she said, Ladybug stood before him. 

Chat was on his feet in an instant, eyes wide, looking at Ladybug- no, Marinette, in bewilderment. “It’s you.” 

Marinette dropped the transformation and looked Chat in the eyes, “It’s me kitty”

Chat laughed at the absurdity of it all but asked his princess; his lady; his love, a question. “May I kiss you?”

“You may.”

There, on Marinette’s balcony, at 12:42 in the morning; they kissed.

However, it didn’t last long as their kiss was interrupted by the sound of a teenaged girl dressed like a pirate bellowing, “I am the Ship’rrrrr and I will make all of my ships canon!” 

The two previously kissing heroes, one masked and the other not, silently questioned if Hawkmoth had some sort of secret agenda, but neither had time to dwell on that thought as they saw citizens getting blasted left and right with some kind of weird love canon. 

“Tikki, Transform me! Spots on!”


End file.
